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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29453256">blue days</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/pastlover/pseuds/pastlover'>pastlover</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Divergence, M/M, Pining, Post-Timeskip, i don't know how to tag, just them pining and being stupid abt it tbh, light angst if you squint hard enough, no beta we die</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:07:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,962</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29453256</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/pastlover/pseuds/pastlover</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Akira thinks the color blue belongs to Tobio, all of its shades, so he dyed his hair the closest shade to Tobio’s eyes.</p>
<p>...or the beach extra chapter, but Akira dyed his hair blue.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kageyama Tobio/Kunimi Akira</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>56</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>blue days</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i haven't stopped thinking about kunimi dyeing his hair blue in that extra chapter (although it's just furudate's choice of coloring) but blue haired kunimi lives in my mind rent free and apparently i like making everything into kunikage. so here's my word vomit, please have mercy if it's too bad. good luck and please try not to scrutinize it so much. thank you.</p>
<p>disclaimer: all characters belong to furudate haruichi.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tobio stands ten feet apart from Akira, strands of hair swept across his forehead gently despite the unbearable cold wind of early spring the beach furthers. There’s a thin line on Tobio’s mouth that keeps his words up to his throat, not past his tongue, not vocalized, not reaching Akira’s ears, but Akira knows. Akira knows his eyes aren’t tied to the vast sea bringing the waves to crush against the shore behind him. Akira knows that his eyes are trained on him, on strings of his hair that aren’t covered with his cap, on the blue that seems faint hiding beneath his cap and the sun beyond the clouds.</p>
<p>The line of his lips parts, Akira waits, but nothing comes out and Tobio only budges when Kindaichi nudges him, “Oi, you said you’re coming with Hinata. Where is he?”</p>
<p>Then comes Hinata’s voice behind him, shouting their names in a high-pitched voice that makes Tobio turn. Akira watches as Tobio’s face scrunches up, and thinks, there is some kind of affection built over years of friendship, something he has never shown in front of him or Kindaichi. The thought makes something inside Akira’s chest twist.</p>
<p>“There’s that fool,” Tobio says, loud enough for Hinata to hear.</p>
<p>The orange-haired boy puffs up his chest in front of Tobio. “What did you say, Kageyama?!”</p>
<p>Kindaichi manages to intervene before they go on a full brawl, which would bother not only their surroundings but also Akira’s inner peace. It’s bad enough that the three of them agreed on playing beach volleyball, emphasize on <em>beach</em>, which is against Akira’s own will because none of them brought up anything about beach beforehand. Akira thought it was going to be a normal game of volleyball, indoor, maybe in some gym nearby, hence he’d agreed on playing again when Tobio asked. “<em>If we told you about it, you’d straight up refuse</em>,” Kindaichi reasoned, yet Akira was successfully dragged on this one day one night trip.</p>
<p>He wouldn’t want to imagine how much he has to endure hearing Tobio and Hinata’s noisy quarrelling.</p>
<p>“So,” Akira speaks. His voice lures the rest of them from their small bickering, focusing their attention on Akira. “How are we going to split teams?”</p>
<p>Akira can sense that Tobio is staring from the corner of his eyes. If this is some sign he wants to deliver, Akira chooses to ignore it. But in his mind, he thinks of teaming with Tobio. His monster serves are a nightmare and Akira doesn’t dream of having his arms ripped off by receiving his serves. Then again, going against Ninja Shouyo, the volleyball beach pro, would put him at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>
  <em>Got it!</em>
</p>
<p>“What about we divide it by rock paper scissors?” Kindaichi suggests.</p>
<p>Akira definitely didn’t get it.</p>
<p>“Ugh, why would you say that?”</p>
<p>“Why, you want to team up with someone, Kunimi?”</p>
<p>Akira rolls his eyes, but doesn’t fail to notice the fleeting gaze on him when Kindaichi obliviously said that in a teasing tone. Doesn’t fail to notice Tobio who subtly bites his lip the way he did back in December before Akira kissed him, and God, does it tingle Akira’s heart.</p>
<p>“Eh, sounds good, though! I’m tired of hearing Kageyama scolding me!”</p>
<p>“I don’t even scold you anymore, stupid Hinata!” Tobio snarls. “But I agree with Kindaichi. It would be fair to go with rock paper scissors.”</p>
<p>Akira groans when he and Kindaichi pull out the same sign—scissor—meaning they’re a weaker team going against two pro volleyball players who were known as monsters during their high school days. Ugh. What a misfortune that has befallen him!</p>
<p>To everyone’s surprise, Akira puts more effort than expected. Tobio serves first. It’s not something noticeable at a first glance, but Akira sees the way the wind plays with the ball’s trajectory. He calls it when the ball goes out, and the rest of the game is just them trying to get along with the wind (this is a favor to his team although in the end, the wind is nothing against two volleyball monsters).</p>
<p>Tobio and Hinata win by a few points. Akira doesn’t miss the fire in Tobio’s eyes; the immense joy that lights up his face with a grin; the devotion of playing with someone who shares the same amount of love and passion for volleyball as him; the fondness that is so fixated on Hinata Shouyo.</p>
<p>Hinata has always been the perfect match for him anyway. It brings back memories of high school.</p>
<p>The first time they played together in a practice match, Tobio took him by surprise when he apologized for tossing a set that didn’t match his spiker’s timing. It was a scene too strange to process, because for the three whole years they were in a team together—although Tobio only got quite unbearable in the third year—he never apologized for tossing unreasonable sets, or for demanding more and more and more from his teammates with only atrocity etched in his voice.</p>
<p>What Tobio had with his teammates in Karasuno was something he could never achieve with Akira and Kindaichi. It was kindness woven by time and trust and compassion. It was kindness he learned to grow with along the delight of finding someone who understands him the way Akira and Kindaichi didn’t. Kindness he never gave him. It makes Akira’s whole body numb of the nipping cold at the thought that he’s still undeserving of Tobio’s kindness.</p>
<p>“Can we catch a break first, please?” Akira asks when Hinata announces they should carry on with the game and switch teams.</p>
<p>“No way! It’s only been one game and we’re not even drenched in sweats!” Hinata shouts.</p>
<p>“That’s cause you guys are monsters!” Akira laments. It isn’t fair that those three are professional volleyball players and Akira is just a university student graduating next month.</p>
<p>“Sounds like a you problem!”</p>
<p>Akira glares at Kindaichi as he strides across the net, switching place with Tobio who is walking up to him, all limbs and awkwardness. Beyond muscles his body contains, Tobio looks like how Akira remembers him stepping into the gym for the first time in middle school. But Akira gets where the awkwardness comes from. He gets why Tobio is tense, only several glances thrown and fiddling hands, as he sets a distance between them, because it’s safe to say for Akira to feel the same. That he feels nervousness feeds on his whole body when he sees the boy he spent a night with a few months ago. The boy who will fly a world away later in summer.</p>
<p>“Your hair’s blue,” says Tobio in a hushed tone, as if he only means it for Akira to hear.</p>
<p>“It is,” Akira replies, just as quiet.</p>
<p>The blue of Tobio’s irises stills on Akira’s hair. If he stares a little bit longer, Akira is sure the shade of his hair will be engraved in Tobio’s eyes, the difference of one shade of blue, will live with him for the rest of his life. Akira likes that idea.</p>
<p>When Tobio’s hand reaches out for a single strand of his hair, Akira freezes. Beneath the faint of his cheeks, Akira can see the way Tobio’s face unfolds into questions that never go past his tongue and beyond his lips. <em>When, when did you dye it? Your hair was dark brown under December sky, on a different beach, swept by the chilly breeze of winter.</em></p>
<p><em>I dyed it early January.</em> A few days right after the kiss in the hotel room when the lights were dim and the wavering ocean met the horizon on their window, seeping in and kissing every inch of Tobio’s skin even the parts that Akira couldn’t touch. Akira looked through his eyes, round, intrigued, and yearning and he remembered the times he wore blue or chose blue, not because the color was simply there, but because it held a reminder of the closest thing to home. He remembered the many times he chose blueberry flavor over anything else when his favorite ice cream shop ran out of salted caramel flavor. And so Akira said, “Kageyama, you are so blue.”</p>
<p>Akira thinks the color blue belongs to Tobio, all of its shades, so he dyed his hair the closest shade to Tobio’s eyes.</p>
<p>Tobio’s hand brushes against his cheek as he lets go of his hair. It’s warm. Akira wants to say, <em>stay</em>, but the shouts of Kindaichi and Hinata bring him back to reality. It’s not the same beach they went to in December. They’re not the only ones there. Tobio probably doesn’t want to kiss Akira for the second time.</p>
<p>Akira heaves a sigh and thinks only of the game. Tobio is setting to him and he spikes his set easily. When the ball goes back to their side of the net, Akira tries harder to dig it out, to be a little deserving of fond eyes and kindness of the blue-eyed boy’s.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Akira kissed him in a hotel room near Shirahama Beach.</p>
<p>A string of cursed words came out of Tobio’s mouth as a mutter when his hand lost a grip on a bowl of seafood stew, spilling the leftover soup all over his sweatshirt. Akira looked at him funny when he was overwhelmed by how embarrassing it was, and Tobio could feel blood rushing to his cheeks and make him red on the face. He wasn’t sure if his clumsiness did it, or if it was because Akira was intentionally watching him getting flustered.</p>
<p>Then Akira laughed, a clear, melodic sound filled the air, and it was the moment Tobio reckoned he wasn’t getting flustered because he spilled his food like a five year old.</p>
<p>Clumsiness, outside of volleyball, was a constant reoccurrence in his life. Akira laughing wasn’t.</p>
<p>The only time he remembered Akira genuinely laughing like he was free of weight was high school when Karasuno played Aoba Johsai. It was a sight Tobio had never seen despite being teammates for three whole years. Tobio would beg at the world’s mercy to see it again, and the world was merciful enough to show him exactly what he wanted. Akira was laughing right before him. <em>At him</em>.</p>
<p>“God, Kageyama, you’re so funny.” Akira still chortled.</p>
<p>Tobio chided, “There’s nothing funny about this.”</p>
<p>“Did they oil the bowl or something? It seems slippery in your hand,” he teased. Tobio wanted to tell him to shut up, but Akira gave him a piece of cloth. There was a thrilling tug on his heart. “It’s gonna reek. You brought an extra shirt?”</p>
<p>Tobio did not, said he would be fine with it. They were going back the next morning, anyway, but Akira was true. He reeked of the sea and the spice that smelled too strong it made his nose scrunched up in disgust. It spread around the room and it was too late to buy an extra shirt. Had Kindaichi not ditched them and come along, Tobio would’ve borrowed his shirt. Kindaichi always brings extra things, thanks to his older brother instinct.</p>
<p>
  <em>Damn seafood stew. Damn stupid Tobio. Damn Kindaichi.</em>
</p>
<p>Akira plopped onto the bed beside him when his effort of getting rid of the stew residual was to no avail. He groaned, giving Tobio a side eye, but all Tobio could think of was how delicate he looked in the dim light of the room, the way his brown hair fell on his face, strand by strand until it covered his eye and he had to sweep it back up.</p>
<p>A hand tugged the rim of Tobio’s shirt. Akira’s fingers ghosted over his skin underneath it and Tobio could feel the air getting knocked out of his lungs in one cruel force. His head was spinning fast when Akira pulled him by his shirt, eyes grazing Tobio’s lips the way his lips should be, and Tobio swore he felt like he had just finished running forty laps, like he had just won a game he was most looking forward to.</p>
<p>Akira introduced him to a new kind of exhilaration when he connected their lips. Akira’s lips are soft against his, hands soft cradling his face and guiding Tobio where to kiss him. The thump in his heart was incomparable to any exciting moment in his life; not even going to nationals could beat kissing his best friend in a hotel room.</p>
<p><em>Damn seafood stew.</em> Tobio’s hands were on Akira’s waist. The smell of seafood was still a bother and Akira was going to wake up like him the next day. <em>Damn seafood stew</em>. Akira tugged his shirt again, a couple of yearning hands held themselves back as he let go of the kiss, stared at Tobio’s eyes, and they were so mellow, so achingly beautiful—Akira’s eyes—when he said, “Take it off.”</p>
<p>Damn seafood stew and its smell staining Tobio’s shirt. Damn seafood stew for giving him a chance to slip off of his shirt, chest naked, in front of The Kunimi Akira who looked so ethereal in the dark of the night.</p>
<p>Akira’s lips fell into a lopsided smile as he climbed on Tobio’s lap. Despite having been a volleyball athlete in his school years, Akira felt so light, as if all of his weight and muscles gone, and there were only pretty lines that held his figure together. Lines that guarded him in grace in every single of his move, like when he traced his hands along the muscles built on years of training on Tobio’s chest, down to his stomach. This time, air was getting sucked out of his lungs, agonizingly slow, suffocating him with longing as he took in the sight of Kunimi Akira.</p>
<p>Akira looked so pretty bathing in the moonlight. His body lean, skin glinting in silver, eyes beheld Tobio and Tobio only. There was fear smeared all over Tobio’s hands, dared him to not touch Akira who looked divine as an angel descending from heaven. The way he moved, even in the slightest, held an abundant resemblance to a glimmering reflection on the surface of clear water. Tobio was scared he would falter if he touched him. He was scared Akira would falter and not reform to the same shape as before. Akira, like glass, like water, like moonlight washing him the way it does to Renaissance paintings, looked so fragile like he was about to break and Tobio was a coward for having trembling hands that only touched him when Akira told him so.</p>
<p>“You’re flying to Italy next year,” Akira began, his breath hot against Tobio’s face. “Don’t you wanna touch me?”</p>
<p>Tobio wanted to touch him, so he did. The nape of his neck, perfectly fit for Tobio’s hand, was the first thing he touched after he drank in Akira’s figure, staring at Tobio the way one stared at a dream coming true, touching Tobio the way one touched a sacred possession, telling him that he was so blue like it was a praise.</p>
<p><em>And Kunimi, you’re glinting with silver</em>. Akira smiled into the kiss, Tobio’s hands running up and down in his sides, to his face, to his hair. Planted everywhere, not for long, exploring every inch of his warm body. Somewhere between the kiss, where their mouths devoured each other and tongues translated a newfound language, Akira chanted, “Kageyama... Kageyama... Kageyama...”</p>
<p>Tobio’s heart leaped out of his chest.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>The beach is quiet on a spring afternoon. Tobio and Akira comply with the silence with Akira lying down on the sand beside him, hair splayed out on his bag he uses as a pillow. So beautiful and blue, sleeping peacefully out in the nature like he belongs here. But sleeping in this weather won’t do him no good. The wind stings and it takes Hinata and Kindaichi longer to get drinks.</p>
<p>Tobio doesn’t wake him—not when he looked so exhausted playing endless sets of game and harder than he’d ever seen him. Instead, he drapes his jacket over his body and his heart does a little flip when the voice inside his head tells him he wants to hold him again. His gaze lingers a little bit longer, <em>just one more second</em>, at Akira’s sleeping figure that reminds him much of Shirahama. It’s the same face he woke up to the first thing in the morning.</p>
<p>In Shirahama, they walked along the seashore, snow covering the sand and the ocean a shade deeper of the night. Tobio asked if Akira wanted to visit the shrine—it was Kindaichi’s initial plan—but Akira just kept walking toward the sea, already knee-deep in the water, he said, “I don’t think I believe any of that. I don’t even visit shrines on New Year.”</p>
<p>Tobio thought, still thinks, despite Akira’s cold exterior, he was an angel descended from heaven. Not casted out, just wandering out of his will like a free soul. His hair was dark brown, still the color of the soil dampened by the rain, the color that feeds on life of many plants despite his glass-like skin that seemed so out of reach. Tobio had never thought now Akira would dye his hair blue. Blue like Kitagawa Daiichi’s jersey. Blue mirrored from the reflection he sees every morning when he fixes his hair.</p>
<p>Akira’s voice rings in his head, <em>Kageyama, you’re so blue.</em></p>
<p>Akira is blue too now. Bluer than the ocean in the cold of winter. Bluer than most it puts him in the limelight. Bluer than Tobio wants to admit it makes his heart skip a beat.</p>
<p>“You’re staring.”</p>
<p>A groggy voice pulls Tobio out of his dreamlike imagery of Akira. Heat creeps up to his neck when Akira’s eyes flutter open, his eyelashes dancing prettily on his cheeks. Akira’s gaze instantly meets Tobio’s.</p>
<p>“I’m not. Wasn’t staring at all,” Tobio denies, although he makes the mistake of staring still at Akira sitting and putting Tobio’s jacket on. Tobio is a hundred percent sure he is crimson now.</p>
<p>“I wasn’t sleeping,” Akira says.</p>
<p>“That was an act?”</p>
<p>“I was trying to recharge my energy,” Akira simply answers. There is subtlety in the way he moves that if Tobio doesn't know better, he wouldn’t notice their knees were brushing.</p>
<p>Tobio gulps. “Did you really have to close your eyes?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, it helps.”</p>
<p>“Help? In what way?”</p>
<p>Akira raises an eyebrow, looking him right in the eye, but Tobio doesn’t waver. It’s quite funny how earlier this day Akira acted like a preschool student getting used to a new environment when he saw Tobio. This, ironically, applies to Tobio as well, although in his defense he was surprised Akira was daring to go for that head-turning blue.</p>
<p>Tobio only starts to waver when his eyes flit on Akira’s lips. His mind isn’t as vigorous as a dam, so when the memories of what Akira’s lips taste like surge through his mind, he doesn’t know how to hold up. At all. Tobio remembers Akira’s lips on his, all warm and minty and his hands pushing Tobio down by his chest. Tobio remembers where Akira’s hands have wandered in his body and the remnants of his touch root on Tobio’s veins, aching with the absence of Akira’s skin.</p>
<p>Tobio wants it. Wants all of him. Kissing Akira and planting his hands on Akira’s blue hair. He wonders if he will taste the same. If Akira still glints of silver and clear glass, or if he will turn into a deep blue of winter ocean.</p>
<p>“Why did you dye your hair blue?” Tobio’s voice is quiet between the crashing waves and the howling wind.</p>
<p>Akira didn’t falter when Tobio touched him back then. He didn’t break like Tobio had thought he would be, but Akira falters little by little at the simple question coming out of Tobio’s mouth. His eyes slowly surrender from piercing Tobio’s own and lands to the ocean.</p>
<p>From what Tobio remembers, Akira never fiddles, but this time his hands fiddle with the zip of his jacket and tightens it before he murmurs, “I was losing my impulse control.”</p>
<p>“But why blue?”</p>
<p>Tobio doesn’t know what kind of answer he is expecting, but something inside him flickers at the possibility of Akira dying his hair blue with the thought of Tobio in his mind.</p>
<p>Akira looks at him with a taunting smile. He leans in close enough to catch Tobio’s lips. “So you can copy my haircut from high school, but I can’t dye my hair blue?”</p>
<p>“Oh, shut up.”</p>
<p>The red on Tobio’s face precedes Akira’s laugh. Tobio can name three moments Akira laughs because of him: when he spilled seafood stew, when he played against him a while ago, and when Tobio is yet flustered again now. It’s quite a delight, really, seeing Akira’s face lights up with joy and he is so radiant. Tobio lets himself smile a little.</p>
<p>In summer, there won’t be any chances of witnessing Kunimi Akira basking in the sun, glowing yellow while he eats his favorite ice cream. When that time comes, he will already be in Italy. Today, though, Tobio is allowed to take in as much of Akira as he can get.</p>
<p>With his bewitching smile and the graceful lines of his body, Akira could easily get anyone wrapped around his finger. The realization wrings his heart in an ugly way that when they’re worlds away later, Akira won’t be thinking about him, and that he can go home with anyone he pleases and lets on to someone else about everything he’s shown to Tobio.</p>
<p>Tobio knows it’s sick to think that way, but when he looks at Akira, he no longer sees the fourteen year old teammate who abandoned him on court. He doesn’t see Akira in a gloomy light as he did before. All he sees is a boy so delicate who has Tobio’s heart in the palm of his hand.</p>
<p>“You know why, Kageyama.” is all Akira needs to say to make Tobio’s heart feel like beginning to crush.</p>
<p>The blue of Akira’s hair is entrenched in his mind. The dye won’t last long. It will probably fade by summer and Akira won’t have a reason to remember Tobio anymore when he’s away. Will he re-dye it once it fades? Will Akira bother to? Will the bank he’s working at this year allow it? Probably not. But the fact that Akira thought of Tobio when he did it should provide enough reassurance that he will also remember Tobio. Away or not. Friends or not.</p>
<p>“When I’m away in Italy...” Tobio wonders aloud, mouth faster than his brain, and he is surprised hearing his own voice.</p>
<p>Tobio catches a glimpse of Akira’s widened eyes. He slightly jolts at the question, and with Akira’s wit, he probably knows where he’s going with this conversation. Tobio is fucked, that for sure, because Akira just sits still, looking at Tobio with a face he doesn’t recognize. His eyes changing from brown to gray to whatever it suits the beholder, and Tobio can’t decide what color it is except the ongoing tumult Tobio has brought about.</p>
<p>A smile cracks on his still face. Tobio’s worries stripped away bit by bit with every second Akira keeps his smile. Then all at once, his words ripple through Tobio like water streaming in the river. “I will still be here.”</p>
<p>Spring is too cold a season to go on a beach. Basking in the sun is Kunimi Akira, too graceful, too divine, too far to touch. But Kageyama Tobio is there by his side, his fingers picking strands of Akira’s blue hair. If Akira decides going for blue, then Tobio will make sure he’s going to be a part of his life he remembers for eternity.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>if you made it all the way here, let me hold your hand!! just a little tmi but i started this fic with intense eagerness and i Loved it, but toward the end i thought this turned out to be leaning bad or even bad, so i don't really know how this will be seen. leave some comments if you would and again i hope it's not scrutinized much. thank you!! ;u;</p></blockquote></div></div>
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